Milwaukie is beginning the ambitious project of mapping out the cities transportation plans that will affect how we get to and through our city for the next decades. And, they made great efforts to get the public involved with provisions of input and in decision making. It started late last year as transportation liaison Gavin Hales worked to get the word out and to interview citizens to find out just what issues were important to them.
Then starting on March 24, 2007 the city began holding planning meetings open to the public. After general meetings were held, groups were broken down according to interest. Issues covered are to include biking/pedestrian, bus lines, light rail lines and automobile.
These are important issues. Of course, the biking issues are of significant interest, and any improvements that can be made are beneficial to all. But, Milwaukie is already a pretty good cycling area, so perhaps the greatest impact of all the transportation improvements will be in the determination of how and where we construct the light rail system that is coming in two different directions from Portland, into and through our city.
Goals of sessions include:
- Review the list of problems and solutions developed at Workshop #1
- Discuss specific design solutions developed by staff and the consultants
- Prioritize solutions.
- Share personal experience with pedestrian and bicycle routes in Milwaukie.
- Clearly identify problems with the existing pedestrian and bicycle networks and note the things that work well.
- Brainstorm solutions for the problems identified
- A second meeting is to be held Saturday April 7th 4:30pm to 6:00pm at Milwaukie Public Safety Building 3200 SE Harrison Street Milwaukie, OR 97222.
For links to planning documents…….read on.